Hope is Everything
by writergirl45
Summary: Harry's in his Sixth year with new chalanges. Voldermort has a daughter and Dumbledore has put harry in charge of makeing her confortable at Hogwarts. What will come of this 'new girl' Harry and new girl do not hook up so don't think that. HR HG eventuall
1. Default Chapter

I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter. It would rock if I did though because it would mean I am an awesome writer. But hey I can wish right? Anyways on with the story.

**Chapter One**

The sorting was finally done, and I was starving. By now everyone had noticed the girl sitting off to the side of the teachers table. She looked very young and seemed to be around my age. She had long light brown hair that came to the bottom of her back. From where I was sitting she looked very pretty. I had wondered who she was and what she was doing here along with everyone else. By now most people had lost interest and were now eagerly awaiting all the food. I was not one of them. It was not her prettiness that still had my attention; there was just something about her that still held my gaze to her.

Suddenly I hard Dumbledore talking and forced my attention onto him, "Ladies and gentlemen I am proud to announce, we have a new student among us. She will be starting 6th year and I hope you all welcome her." We clapped as Dumbledore took his seat and McGonagall stood up. Then she called out:

"Ranaldi, Alexis" I sighted as the girl stood up and walked over to the sorting hat. I was hoping her name would give me some reason to why she held my attention to such a decree. At first I thought she might be part vela, but I gave up on that when I realized I was the only person staring at her. She sat down on the chair and McGonagall placed the hat one her head. It was some time before…

"Gryffindor" was shouted throughout the great hall. I was again doing a mental sigh. My second thought was that she was involved with Voldermort. But if that had been the case she would have been in Slytherin. Even through my confusion I stood with the rest of my table and applauded her over. I wanted her to sit by me, but I knew that was impossible. There were no seats close to me.

Finally the food appeared and I began loading my plate. After all I was very hungry. I looked accosted the table at Ron. He already had food piled to the max on his plate and in his mouth. I smiled and let out a small laugh. That was Ron for you. Atleast you could always expect the same from him.

Hermione didn't take it the same as I did. "Ron you are disgusting."

"I an't elp t. I hgry." He retorted back.

"We are all hungry, but somehow we all manage to eat like civilized people." And on they went. I smiled and shook my head. I didn't mind when they bickered like this anymore. I knew it was just the kind of relationship they had. They were complete opposites and it was only natural that they would do this kind of thing. I shook my head once more and turned to Dean. Before I could ask him what I had intended to professor McGonagall interrupted.

"Potter the Headmaster would like to see you in his office when everyone is finished." She said then turned to head back to the teacher's table.

Down the table the girl froze. Then got up and ran out of the great hall. McGonagall noticed this and turned and went after her.

When dinner was finally over I headed in the opposite direction as the rest of my fellow Gryffindor's. The girl hadn't come back yet and everyone had noticed. McGonagall had come back a little before everyone left. I reached Dumbledore's entrance and realized I didn't have the password. I didn't know what to do so I randomly started throwing out words. I'd been at this for about five minutes before McGonagall showed up and told me the password was "cotton candy" I would never have guessed this because it was an American muggle candy. I sighed at Dumbledore's uniqueness and headed up the stairs. I lightly knocked on the door. Things had been a little weird now between Dumbledore and I since my episode in this very office. This summer I had realized that Dumbledore had just been trying to protect me. Now I was going to try and show him that I wasn't mad at him anymore. I heard his voice call me in, so I opened the door and stepped in.

I was surprised to find that the girl was sitting in one of the chairs across from Dumbledore desk. "You wanted to see me." I said. At my voice the girl seemed to cower down into the chair. This really baffled me. I had never talked to this girl, why would she already be afraid of me.

"Ah yes Harry I would. Please take a seat." Dumbledore seemed just like always. I was glad to know he wasn't going to hold against me what happened last year.

I glanced at the girl, then took my seat. This girl was starting to drive me crazy. She seemed to know me and somehow held the attention of the teachers. I had never seen McGonagall care about one girl leaving. What made her so special?

"What is this all about," I blurted out before thinking it over.

"Harry you never have been one to wait have you. Yes well there is no sense in dragging it out. I'm sure you heard when Miss Ranaldi was sorted. Alexis this is Harry Potter." When Dumbledore stopped I reached out my hand and waited for her to take it. This made her scoot the chair away from me and hide her face in her hands. I dropped my hand and looked at Dumbledore for help. "I found her in Germany. She is quit an amazing woman. Does she remind you of anyone," he asked?

I shook my head no. "There is something about her though; I can't put my finger on it."

"Wonderful, you shouldn't visually recognize her because she doesn't look anything like him."

"Him…Who," I asked confused.

"Her father…Voldermort." I felt my jaw drop. Voldermort had a kid. And why did Dumbledore have her in the same room as me. "She looks almost exactly like her mother. Her mother was an amazing woman. Very against the dark arts. When I taught her I remember thinking how remarkably talented she was. Alexis was rather nervous when I tried to bring her hear. But here she is, doing quit wonderful handling things." Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes. Now everything made sense. She was afraid of me. That's why she ran out of the great hall, and wouldn't look at me. I could feel Voldermort in her, that's why she held my attention.

Then I thought about it from a different angle. If she was Voldermort's daughter she must have gotten some of his power. Dumbledore also said her mother was particularly powerful as well, if she fought on our side who know how she would be able to help. I felt a smile spread across my face.

Dumbledore saw it and returned it with one of his own. "I was hoping the tow of you could get to know each other," He stated. When he said this he looked over at Alexis. She didn't return his gaze or respond to the question so Dumbledore proceeded with a "what do you think Alexis."

She slowly looked up, she and Dumbledore just looked at each other before she nodded her head and said very softly. "Yes"

Wonderful, Harry you can show her around. It just happens that the two of you have the same schedule." Yeah, it just happened that we have the same schedule, not likely. Dumbledore most likely arranged it that way. What did he have planed for the two of us in the future? "Alexis would you mind waiting outside for a moment I have to talk to Harry" she nodded and left the room. Dumbledore watched her walk out then looked at me. "She truly is a wonderful woman. Once she gets into the flow of things we will see the real her. She's had a hard life. It just got way worse. She just has to adjust. Her mother died about six months ago. When I came out and got her she didn't know anything about Voldermort being her father. She new everything that had gone on with him, including you story. She feels like it's her fault or something. Try to be really nice and get her into the right groups. I don't want anyone to find out about her being Voldermort's daughter. He doesn't know she exists and I want to keep it that way."

I woke up the next day early. I wanted to be sure to be up before Alexis, incase she was an early morning person. I had told her last night to meet me in the common Room at 7:30 and I didn't want her to wait for me. I walked into the common room 15 minutes early to find Alexis sitting in one of the chairs.

Her hair was put in a partial and she had a small amount of make-up on. I noticed last night that she had blueberry blue eyes. I had thought she was pretty last night but now I realized she was more that that. She was a perfect example of what beautiful should look like.

"Boy you're up early. I didn't expect to see you down here for a wile."

She just nodded at me. I hadn't been able to get her to talk to me last night. I hoped she would be over that by today. People would start to wonder if she wouldn't talk. I wanted her to trust me before she had to face everyone else. Not talking to me was a bad sign in the trust department. Suddenly an idea popped into my head.

"I'm going to go get some breakfast. Why don't you wait hear for me." I asked. Again she just nodded her head.

I went to Dumbledore's office and prayed that he wasn't already down at breakfast. I knocked on his door and breathed a sigh of relief when I heard his voice call me in.

"Oh Harry what can I do for you."

"I was wondering if it would be possible for me and Alexis to skip school today. I'm worried that some of the kids might…find her odd. I'm hoping I can get her to be comfortable around me before we drop her in."

"That's a brilliant idea Harry. I should have though about that last night. I shall inform the teachers to excuse you absence."

I thanked him, and headed to grab some breakfast for myself and Alexis. I was excited to have the chance to really get to know her. It did scare me a bit to know she was Voldermort's daughter, but of all people I knew you couldn't help who you were related to. If I could the Dursley's would have been out of my family years ago.

When I got back, Alexis was exactly where I left her. "Today we are going to skip the whole school thing. I want to really get to know you."

To this she only nodded

"I thought I could show you around the castle, first. It really is quite wonderful."

The beginning of the day sucked. By 10:30 I was miserable. No mater how hard I tried I couldn't get Alexis to talk to me. At ten I saw how nice it was outside, and took her to see the grounds. Finally, when I asked a question and again only got a nod, I was fed up. "I understand that right now you having a hard time, but shutting the world out isn't going to do any good. Trust me I've tried and it doesn't. I could help you if you would just talk to me."

She didn't say anything. She just looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes. Then finally she said, "I do not deserve to talk to you or anyone here. I am the dirt beneath you feet, I do not deserve to act like you equal," in a very quiet voice. Instead of looking at me she had now decided the ground was very exciting.

This shocked me. I had never thought of myself as better than anyone. Especially this beautiful, and apparently talented girl in front of me.

"No it isn't your fault. You had no control over what happened. The only person we can blame for anything is Voldermort. Just because he's you dad doesn't mean anything. You can't control who you're related to. I mean you've never even meet the guy." I said to her. "You are no worse than anyone here. Which means, I took her chin and gently pulled her gaze to mine, "you look down to no one."

"But," she started but I stopped her.

"No buts, from now on if you don't respond to me I will assume you are being rude and get mad at you." We did a stare down and Alexis finally looked away. "now where were we. Oh yes, I was telling you about the giant squid in the lake.

End Chapter One!

4


	2. Chapter 2

I own nothing it is all the wonderful work of J. K. Rowling. So don't sue me lol 

By the end of the day Alexis new everything I knew about the castle. Considering I had the marauder's map this was quite a bit. In the beginning I had been reluctant to share a lot of information. But the more I talked to her the more I trusted her. It wasn't as though she was even trying to convince me to trust her. If anything it would be the opposite. I still only got one word answers from her, but it was defiantly an improvement upon last night.

Ron and Hermione were very insistent on knowing where I had been all day. As soon as Alexis and I walked through the porthole they were asking me questions. I noticed people watching us and told Ron and Hermione I wasn't telling them anything. Asking me questions in front of everyone was drawing attention to the fact that Alexis and I had both missed classes. I hoped telling Ron and Hermione I wasn't going to tell them anything would make other people think we had just had a prolonged snogging session and wouldn't try finding out the real reason. After saying this I gave both of them a quick but significant glance. Not anything onlookers would get ideas about but my tow best mates in the world would understand. We would talk later.

After this I changed the subject. "Guys met Alexis. Alexis this is Ron Wesley and Hermione Granger. There also in 6th year."

"Nice to meet you," Hermione said. She waited a moment for Ron to say something then elbowed him in his ribs.

"Owe what you do that for."

"Say something."

"Oh…Yeah…Right…Hi: everything was quiet for another moment until Alexis chuckled softly. I had to do a double take because I wasn't even sure she knew how. I'd been trying to get some sign of amusement out of her all day. Once I realized I was staring I quickly looked at Ron. He had a sort of sheepish grin stuck on his face. I guess if you weren't used to this sort of thing it would be very funny. "Anyways we were just coming back to ask if you guys wanted to join us for dinner. We were sort of…busy and missed it." I said building on the snoging idea.

"Yea that sounds great." Ron said. He never ate enough food.

""I promised Ginny I would talk to her tonight about something," Hermione said.

"So bring her along and talk to her then," I said.

Ginny's Point of View

I stood pacing in the girls dormitories. I thought Hermione would have been here by now. We weren't the best of friends, but I trusted her. She wouldn't just not come without some kind of generic reason. I think if we were in the same year we would be really good friends. But we weren't so we didn't have any classes together. Not only that, but with all the things Harry and Ron get her involved in, we hardly every have a chance to talk. If it wasn't for all the time she spends at the burrow and now at Headquarters last summer that I had the chance to try and get to know her. Now I really needed to talk to her. She was the only person who could help me with my current problem. Just as I started to really freak out, Hermione walked through the door. "What took you so long," I asked in a rush.

"Harry missed all his classes and Ron and I were worried. He just got back with Alexis a few minutes ago."

"Were was he wait a sec Alexis who's she?"

"Remember the new girl who was sorted into Gryffindor last nigh."

"The one he couldn't keep his eyes off of." I said under my breath.

"What was that, I missed it?"

"Oh I just said where was he all day."  
"Yeah right…I don't know he's going to tell us at dinner. They missed it. So were going to the kitchens. You want to come. I know you needed to talk to me but I thought you could talk to me then."

"Well its not really something I want to talk to everyone about but yeah I'll go to dinner with you. I'm interested in what Harry's got in store for this years excitement." We both had a small laugh about this. It was funny on the surface but if you thought about it, it is rather odd. Why did Voldermort care so much about Harry. He's only a 16 year old boy. What made him so special?

Hermione's point of view

I was very interested in what Harry was up to. It was obvious he was trying to cover up that he missed class in front of everyone. It was odd as well that he had been with Alexis. What would Harry possibly have to do with her? Nobody even knew her yet. She hadn't really given anyone the chance. Finally we reached the picture of fruit that hid the entrance to the kitchens. I was about to burst with curiousness about all this. Harry was the firs one though and in seconds was pounced on by dobby. "Harry Potter sir I was not expecting to see you yet. What can dobby do for Harry Potter sir?"

"Hey Dobby, do you have any place that's private. My new friend and I missed dinner and I was hoping we could grab something from down here."

"Yes Harry Potter sir Dobby knows of the perfect spot for Harry Potter to have a nice private dinner with his friends."

To say I was shocked with what Harry's explanation would be an understatement. Voldermort…daughter…wow…wow…My brain was for once going pretty slow. This was a lot to take in. Finally after a few moments of silence it started in overtime again. If she fought on our side it could be the edge we needed. "So what do you think about all this," I asked. So far I hadn't heard her say a single word. And come to think of I Harry still hadn't said why he missed all day. My mind was going in a hundred different directions. This was one of those times I would run out of the room to the library while Ron called me 'barking mad.' Harry was talking again.

"Then today I decided to wait until tomorrow to start classes and take the chance today to get to know Alexis." Harry finished and looked around.

This all made sense I guess. Harry had to trust Alexis. Nothing of Dumbledore's plans could go into action if there was not a strong bond of trust built up. Trust was the key to Dumbledore's plan. Somehow I just knew it. I didn't know how that was going to happen, how do you trust someone you just met and found out they were the offspring of the most evil man on earth. Harry met my eyes. Without saying anything I knew what he was trying to say. "Help me"

And that was just what I intended to do.

End Chapter 2!

Well I know its really short, but I liked how that ended. I'm sorry for the very long delay in updating. But don't worry I'm on spring brake now so I should have plenty of time to work on the story. Chapter three is already well underway as well. I'm hopping to update two more times this week so check up often! Now on to responding to my two wonderful reviews. Please send me a review. I really love them, even if you just say 'it sucks' I promise to respond to EVERY review I get so please please please send me ANYTHING.

Lux Aeterna – I want to start with saying I appreciate the review! Responding to some of the stuff you said…First off I knowingly created her to be a Mary-Sue. I can't say more than that without giving anything away. I also stated that Harry understood that "you can't help who you were related to." As for ripping off the line from return of the king, I've never seen lord of the rings so that's not what I did. Dumbledore is out of character because he doesn't know how to act around Harry (Although I must admit he's one of the hardest characters to write about) The last on is its Americanized because I'm from America. I'll try to tone it down a bit. Thanks for your very honest review. Please stick with me till the end.

Girlygirl75 – I loved your review. It was the first really positive one I've ever received. Considering that my grand total is 2 that's not saying much, but I still really enjoyed reading it. Please stick around for the chapters still to come.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ginny's Point of View

After Harry's surprising announcement dinner wasn't very eventful. Even though I had already had dinner I couldn't stop myself form trying a few things. I was a true Weasley when it came to food. I ate a lot and didn't gain a pound. After Harry told us who Alexis was we didn't go into much discussion. We all new that wasn't the right topic at the moment. Alexis wasn't giving away how she felt about it, but I'm sure she was glad we didn't go into much detail.

Instead we discussed what all we had done today. I really wasn't listening to Hermione go on about her ancient ruins class. I was trying to get a read on Alexis. Nobody else was visibly having a hard time excepting her. Why did nobody else care that she was voldermorts daughter. Well that wasn't true. I could tell Ron was wasn't very comfortable with what he had just heard. No one could tell but me though. Ron was my brother, not only that but he had always been my best friend. No matter how hard he tried to hide it, I would always be able to read him. The same went for him as well. In my 1st year through my 4th year we had somewhat drifted. This summer we've fixed that. We are now are even closer than before.

Ron's Point of View

Dinner took forever. I only ate so everyone wouldn't know something was wrong. I also knew Ginny wasn't happy ether. She didn't even attempt to hide it. Everyone knew how she felt. Well everyone who paid attention to her, witch at the moment I think was only me. Everyone else was too busy trying to act like nothing was hard, or that Alexis's presence was perfectly brilliant.

As we were heading back to the common room I decided to talk to Ginny. "Hey you guys go on without me. I need to grab something from the library. Ginny you want to come with me."

"I'll go with you Ron. I was going to drop by in the morning anyway," Hermione said.

"No that's ok Hermione you look beat, Ron and I should only be a couple minutes any way," Ginny said coming to my rescue. What she said did seem to hurt Hermione's feelings anyway.

I waited until we were for enough away before I stopped at a broom closet. I grabbed Ginny's arm and jumped in and closed the door. "So what's your opinion on this whole thing?" I asked her.

"I don't like this thing at all. What is Harry thinking?"

"Forget Harry what about Dumbledore. What's he smoking?" I returned. I had picked up the line over the summer talking to a muggle family that had just moved here from America. Ginny just laughed at me. "Well I guess if we take a minute and think about it from a more open point of view, Dumbledore usually has a reason for everything he does. He trusts Snape when everyone thinks he shouldn't maybe this is the same thing."

"You really should stop hanging out with Hermione so much. You just sounded exactly like her," Ginny stated with a big smirk.

"Shove off," I retorted back trying to hide my smile that was threatening to show it's self.

"But seriously, if Dumbledore does have something up his sleeve why does he have to involve Harry. Doesn't he think this all might be hard for him on top of everything else he's dealing with?"

"I think he has to have a plan. I trust Dumbledore. He knows more about this whole war then anyone. What should we do about Alexis for now though? I don't fancy the idea of Acting like everything is all brilliant around her."

"I know what you mean. But we can't be cold towards her ether."

"Man I hate this." I said with a big sight.

"Tell me about it. How bout this we just are neutral. Don't be cold but don't really talk to her ether. I think it's the only way to go."

"Yeah…it just doesn't sound like the one that's the most fun."

"Like I said it's the only plan I can come up with. We don't really have much of a choice."

"We better be starting back. I still have to straighten out Hermione. I'm sure this hurt her feelings. I'm just not sure why."

"Don't sweat it. I'm your sister she can't possibly think of too many horrible reasons as to why we wanted to go off alone."

"You don't know Hermione very well."

"Just leave it to me. I'll handle it."

Hermione's Point of View

I couldn't imagine why Ron and Ginny wanted to go off on their own. I wasn't so stupid that I didn't know they weren't going to the library. They had never done something like this before.

"Hey Hermione"

I jumped. Only seconds before I had been alone. Must have zoned out. I looked up to find Ron and Ginny were back. "Hi," I said not really sure how was feeling towards them.

"Where's Harry," Ron asked me. Of course he didn't care about me. He just wanted to talk to Harry.

"They went up to see Dumbledore about something," I responded. Ginny and Ron shared a look I sure didn't miss. What was going on?

"Well then I'm gona go up to bed. It's been a long day."

"Yeah," I replied. Acting like I didn't care, while in reality carring very much. Why did I have to care what he thought?

"Goodnight"

"Night," Ginny said making me remember she was there. After this there was a very uncomfortable silence generally I would be searching for something to say but at the moment I didn't care. Finally Ginny broke it by saying, "Please don't get mad. We just needed to talk. It was a sibling thing."

I felt my anger flair, "so how come they just started. Why couldn't you talk about it with me? Why did you have to make up an excuse." I knew I was being ridiculous but I couldn't stop. When it comes to things with Ron I don't make a lot of sense, even to myself.

"Hermione please try to understand. We didn't' want to hurt anyone's feelings. We just had to talk about some things."

I could see the pleading in her eyes. The logical part of my brain was saying drop it, Ron's one of your best friends he wouldn't do anything to hurt you; the part of my brain that didn't make sense when it came to Ron was saying be mad and yell. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry. I should understand. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Looks like a good case of Ron obsession to me." Ginny said under her breath.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing"

"So anyways what was it you wanted to talk to me about."

"Oh…it was nothing, never mind."  
I could tell she was lying. I really wanted to be friends with her. She seemed like a really great person. Plus she was Ron's little sister and I really wanted his family to like me. "Come on Ginny you can talk to me." I persuaded.

"Its nothing I was being stupid." She replied with a quick smile.

I was so not buying it. "It wasn't nothing before you were really insistent. You can tell me anything. Trust me, I won't tell a soul. Besides who would I tell Harry or Ron. Yeah right, big deal," I said trying to lighten her mood.  
"It is a big deal," she said in a whisper. "Come on follow me." Before I could ask anything else we were out of the common room, through the portrait hole and in the hallway out side.

"Ginny what is this all about?"

"I need your advice."

"Like I said anything," I returned.

"Its just…well you're the only one who could give me some sound advice…I just wanted…" she drifted off without giving me any real information.

"Come on Ginny, just spit it out."

"I still like Harry. But I don't want to scare him off again. I don't know how to act around him with everything. I don't want to bother him, but I want to help him. I don't want to always be Ron's little sister, but I don't think I could ever be anything else. And now there's that stupid Alexis girl that I think he likes. How am I supposed to compete with that?"

I stopped her there. She had said all that without taking a breath and there had been no sign of her needing one ether. "Ginny slow down, I can only solve one thing at a time. I can understand the scaring Harry off. You want him to see the grown up beautiful Ginny not he obsessed little girl. As far as that goes just stay the same. Just be Ginny. As far as not bugging him, but helping him…just be available to him. That's all anyone can do right now. There's little comfort when you loose someone close to you. Being Ron's little sister is already starting to change. Like I said just keep being Ginny. As for Alexis Harry's not stupid enough to fall for a face again. He did it with Cho he wont do it again. Besides that she's Voldermort's daughter, just because Harry's acting nice and relaxed doesn't mean he is. Harry's still on his guard, like we all should be; but that doesn't mean we need to be anything but nice to her."

"You make everything seem easier."

"I'm good at solving other people's problems. It's my own I have trouble with. Just remember what I said. The best thing to do is just be yourself."

"Thanks Hermione I really needed your help. Usually I would go to Ron for advice but there was no way I could talk to him about something like this. You're the only other person that really knows Harry."

I thought about this for a moment. I didn't like that she had come to me as a last resort. I wanted to be the first person she came to, not the last. I wanted her to be comfortable telling me things. I wanted her to trust me. I wanted her to…be my friend. "Ginny you can come to me for anything. I would like to get to know you a lot better. I think we could get to be really good friends."

Ginny's point of view

I wasn't really sure how to respond to Hermione. I did what I knew was neutral until I had time to decide how I felt. "That's nice Hermione. Thanks for your advice. I'm gona go to bed now, don't want to be tired for my second day of school." I threw in a laugh and turned and walked back through the common room, up the stairs and into my dormitory. I flopped onto my bed in my thinking position. What a day. I thought about what Hermione said. I don't know why I'm so hesitant to say 'yeah lets be best friends.' This is what I'd always wanted, the chance to be part of the terrific trio. Maybe it was because I knew at least part of why she wanted to be friends was because of Ron. I wasn't so daft that I thought she just wanted to be my friend for the reasons she had stated. I had enough friends that just wanted to be my friend because of who I was. Not the me person, but the I'll be popular if I'm associated with her. It wasn't much fun, actually it was really lonely; but maybe hermi8non was different. She was best friends with Ron and Harry, and both of them weren't materialistic. I didn't know so much about Harry, but I knew Ron would never be friends with someone who wasn't pretty much great. To most people it wouldn't seem that way but it was. Ron was a lot more complicated that most people saw. My last thought before I drifted off to sleep was I kneaded his advice on the Hermione subject before I could really make any real decisions.

_And that's it for chapter 3. I should be getting one out in the next two weeks again so keep checking back on me. I didn't get any reviews on chapter 2, witch was kinda depressing so if you read this one please review. I really would like to know what anyone thinks about it. Even if you say 'it sucks never write again.' SO PLEASE REVIEW thanks for reading!_


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